Elgato over at the Swanky Conservative has put together this map showing the devastating effects of this weekend’s violent quake and resulting tsunami. Mouse over the countries for the tragic details, which elgato appears to be updating as new info becomes available.
Category: Asia Pacific
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China Will ‘Crush’ Any Taiwan Independence Move
I’ve previously blogged on the latest saber-rattling legislation being considered by communist China in regards towards Taiwan. Now, the ChiComs are vehemently shaking their weapons, trying to get all the rattle possible out of those sabers.
Relations between China and Taiwan are grim and the mainland will crush any major moves toward independence by the island no matter what the cost, the government said in a policy paper on national defense on Monday.
The comments came as China’s parliament discussed a draft anti-secession law that analysts say may contain clauses that would legally bind Beijing to take military action if the island Beijing claims as a renegade province ever declared independence.
Taiwan split from the mainland at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but Beijing still sees the self-governing island of 23 million as part of China and has pledged to bring it back to the fold, by force if necessary.
“The situation in the relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits is grim,” the defense white paper said.
“Should the Taiwan authorities go so far as to make a reckless attempt that constitutes a major incident of ‘Taiwan independence’, the Chinese people and armed forces will resolutely and thoroughly crush it at any cost,” it said.
Separatist activities on Taiwan had become the “biggest immediate threat” to China’s sovereignty and to peace and stability in the region, the paper said.
Pro-independence moves by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian have made Beijing’s communist leaders increasingly nervous since he took office in 2000.
However, Chen’s ambitions suffered a blow this month when his Democratic Progressive Party failed to gain a majority in the legislature, curtailing his power to introduce a new constitution that China says would be a step toward independence.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but it is bound by law to help Taiwan defend itself. Washington is the island’s biggest arms supplier.
The policy paper criticized the United States for continuing to increase, both qualitatively and quantitatively, its arms sales to Taiwan, saying this sent the wrong signal.
“The U.S. action does not serve a stable situation across the Taiwan Straits,” it said.
China has been unmoved by outside criticism that Beijing’s refusal to renounce the use of force against Taiwan has ratcheted up tension across the narrow straits.
It was the “sacred responsibility” of China’s armed forces to prevent Taiwan independence forces from splitting the country, the policy paper said.
On Sunday, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, or parliament, praised the draft anti-secession law and unanimously suggested that it be submitted for deliberation at a session of parliament early next year.
Enacting the law was extremely necessary and very timely, Xinhua quoted the lawmakers as saying.
Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
To instantly quote another particular blogger, “Heh.” I stand by my earlier assessment. The game is the same; the Chinese are merely pushing themselves into a corner where I fear they may have to act to save face.
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Taiwan Says China Creating Legal Basis to Attack
Always at least simmering on the back burner, relations heated up a bit between China and Taiwan as a Taiwanese official called proposed Chinese legislation a potential legal foundation for attack.
Taiwan condemned China’s proposed anti-secession law on Saturday, calling it a move to establish a legal basis to attack the island.
Chinese state media said on Friday that Beijing planned to send the draft law for deliberation during a parliament session on Dec. 25-29. It was seen as a move to head off a formal declaration of Taiwan independence from the mainland.
“They are looking for a legal basis to invade Taiwan,” said Chiu Tai-san, vice chairman and spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council, which sets policy toward Taiwan’s arch-rival.
“If they want to punish or invade Taiwan they must have some legal basis to make it okay to attack,” Chiu said.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened war if the self-governing, democratic island declares statehood.
The official Xinhua news agency did not say why China was enacting an anti-secession law instead of the tougher reunification law it had floated earlier. That law would have bound a Chinese leader to order an attack on Taiwan if the island formally declared nationhood.
China should be very careful with this legislation, as they may be codifying a means by which Taiwan could maneuver them into a war, if only for the Chinese to save face. Though they are working to upgrade and enhance their forces, it is doubtful that China currently has the air and naval capabilities to attack and bring about a successful conclusion before the impact of U.S. assistance to Taiwan is felt. A failed assault by China could possibly serve to strengthen Taiwan’s position in international circles while weakening China’s at home.
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US Against Moves to Alter Taiwan’s Name
The ludicrousness of this story is exemplified in the above headline, taken from Yahoo! News. Taiwan isn’t moving to alter its name — it simply wants to call itself Taiwan.
The United States said it is against moves by Taiwan to drop any references to China in its official name, warning it would disrupt the status quo in delicate cross strait relations.
“Our view on that is that, frankly, we’re not supportive of them,” State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian pledged at the weekend to push for increased use of “Taiwan,” rather than the island’s official designation of Republic of China (ROC).
His move to alter the names of Taiwan’s missions abroad and state-run enterprises is sure to rile Beijing.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, even though the two sides have been governed separately since the defeated nationalists fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists on the mainland.
“These changes of terminology for government-controlled enterprises or economic and cultural offices abroad, in our view, would appear to unilaterally change Taiwan’s status and for that reason we’re not supportive of them,” Ereli said.
China has vowed to reunify with Taiwan, by force if necessary, and opposes its entry to any world body as a country. Taiwan is forced to use the name “Chinese Taipei” in most international organisations and sports meetings.
Ereli said the United States wanted to maintain stability in China-Taiwan relations.
“That’s what we want to see,” he said. “And we are, therefore, opposed to any unilateral steps that would change the status quo.”
And just what is that status quo that is so honky-dory that it must be maintained? Just this little mental exercise we’ve wrestled with for decades:
The United States recognises China’s position that Taiwan is part of China but is bound by law to offer democratic Taiwan the means of self-defence if its security is threatened.
Washington remains the leading arms supplier to Taiwan even though it moved diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
Look, we all know that the two Chinas have long since become two different countries. Sure, they may be reunited someday, just like Hall and Oates may get back together and start churning out new hits. However, we should face the current reality. We’ve realized two separate nations with North and South Korea. We understood the distinction between East and West Germany. We’ve even put up with that crap from the Carolinas, Dakotas and Virginias.
Taiwan, by every definition short of recognition, is already its own country. It’s time we stop saying “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” to one of our strongest allies in the region.
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Paper Birds of Peace Fly to Appease Thai Muslims
Origami? Ori-freaking-gami?!!
Suffice it to say, “paper for peace” will not surpass “land for peace” in effectiveness.
More than 50 military aircraft dropped 120 million origami birds over southern Thailand yesterday in a gesture of peace towards three largely Muslim provinces where 540 people have died in violent clashes this year.
The extraordinary idea was proposed by Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand, who has been criticised for using force rather than negotiation to counter Islamic unrest in the south of his predominantly Buddhist country.
It was the biggest paper drop in the region since the Allies had to convince thousands of Japanese troops that the Second World War had ended.
But the paper-bird exercise failed to quell the unrest. A retired prosecutor was shot dead at his shrimp farm in one of the rebellious provinces. The Pattani United Liberation Organisation, an outlawed group, said: “Even if you used 500 baht (£7) banknotes to fold 100 million birds . . . it would not stop the suffering of those who have been severely oppressed.”
Air force planes trailing coloured smoke started dropping the origami cranes at 9.09am yesterday: nine is regarded as a lucky number in Thailand.
The birds had been folded by volunteers including cabinet ministers and convicts during the past two weeks, and were dropped on the 77th birthday of Thailand’s revered King Bumiphol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-serving monarch. One signed by the Prime Minister offered an educational scholarship or job to whoever found it. Others offered rewards in an apparent attempt to prevent a problem with litter — 50,000 birds secured a bicycle, 10,000 a table fan, and 250 a bag of sugar.
Children in the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani rushed out eagerly to greet the falling birds, but the air drop was regarded by many Islamic leaders as propaganda and received a lukewarm reception. Moreover, many of the birds carried the inscription “No separatism for south Thailand.”
“The majority of people in the south do not see any significance in origami cranes,” Abdulraman Abdulsamad, chairman of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat, said. “The idea is not totally bad. At least we could remind ourselves that violence is not a good thing. But the people need more than paper gestures.”
The birds also came with a warning from Mr Thaksin. At a press conference the day before the drop he said that he would try to win back the south with “love and warmth,” but added: “If they don’t stop we’re justified to do what’s required to sustain unity.”
The three restive provinces have been part of Thailand for just over 100 years. An insurgency that has rumbled on there for decades flared in January.
The idea of using an origami crane as a peace symbol originated in Japan after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
In what is obviously a clash of vastly different cultures, any hope vested in this maneuver shows a lack of understanding of the Islamic opposition that would make Neville Chamberlain cringe.
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U.S. Tells Summit Landmine Cut Planned
The U.S. released a surprise statement to the international landmine summit in Nairobi, promising to ban its usage of anti-personnel mines by 2010 … almost.
The world will have to wait until 2010 before the United States of America bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.
This is the message the military superpower sent to the delegates attending the first review conference of the anti-personnel Mine Ban Treaty held in Nairobi.
In an unsigned press release distributed to the delegates, the US statement said between now and 2010, the possible use of persistent anti-personnel landmines will be restricted only to “our security treaty obligations in South Korea and any possible use outside that country will require presidential authorisation”.
The US announced it had increased its mine action budget by 50 percent over the 2003 levels for a new total of $70 million per year.
This is a wise maneuver, showing a willingness to cooperate against an international menace, yet still both retaining an out in case of need and maintaining a realistic view of the weapon’s current role as a deterrence on the Korean peninsula.
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China launches ICBM-capable submarine
According to officials at the U.S. Department of Defense, China has launched its first submarine designed to carry an intercontinental nuclear payload.
The submarine is, at a minimum, months away from having missiles installed and going on a cruise, one official said, discussing foreign weapons developments only on condition of anonymity. Still, it is further evidence of China’s intentions to expand both its nuclear weapons and submarine forces, officials say.
It was widely known China was building the new class of nuclear-missile submarine, called the Type 094 but the launch is far ahead of what U.S. intelligence expected, one official said.
The launch was first reported in the Washington Times newspaper. The newspaper reported U.S. intelligence spotted the sub at a shipyard 400 kilometres from Beijing.
It would be China’s first submarine capable of launching nuclear weapons that could reach the United States from the country’s home waters, officials said.
The Chinese military has also been developing a new class of submarine-launched ballistic missile, called the JL-2, that is expected to have a range in excess of 7,400 kilometres. The Type 094 submarine would carry these missiles but it is not clear whether the missiles are ready for deployment.
Previously, China has had only one submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, called the Type 092, or Xia, class. In 2001, a Pentagon report said the Xia was not operational. Its missiles were of an older class that could fly only 1,000 kilometres.
Successful cruises by the Type 094 would give China a new strategic deterrent against the United States, no longer limited to land-based ICBMs and weapons carried on aircraft. But U.S. defence officials said China lags behind the United States in its ability to hide submarines from sophisticated sonars and other sensors.
By all accounts, China severely lags behind the U.S. in practically every aspect of naval technology, and this class should be easily trackable by American attack submarines.
The Chinese will have a potential impact in three important areas with this launch. First, they are placing an added burden for the American navy to monitor and possibly counter. Second, they will add to the importance of a viable missile defense for the U.S. and an additional stressor on matters concerning Tiawan. Third, they just gave Tom Clancy another storyline.
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International Landmine Summit Opens
Representatives of 143 countries opened a conference in Nairobi, Kenya today with calls for a “total ban of production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmine to make the world mine-free.”
In his opening remarks, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said “unless all the existing stocks are destroyed, and unless production of these lethal weapons is brought to an end, the threat posed by landmines will continue to be with us.”
He urged governments to intensify conflict resolution efforts by resolving conflicts before they escalate into full-scale war.
Jointly organized by the United Nations, International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Kenyan Coalition Against Landmines, the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, has brought together senior government officials of 143 countries across the world.
The summit, to be held in Kenya’s capital Nairobi from Nov. 29 -Dec. 3, will see the first review conference of the milestone Ottawa Convention and the most significant event of the treaty since its signing in 1997, according to the organizers.
During the conference, participants will review the progress of the efforts made in ridding the world of landmines, and produce a concrete action plan for the next five years.
The President-Designate of the Nairobi Summit Wolfgang Petritsch also called at the opening ceremony for increased efforts and action to address the man-made humanitarian catastrophe posed by landmines.
“The problem of anti-personnel mines is unique, as the solution to it is within our reach if we maintain the same intensity and even increase in coming years as we have in the past. My expectation is that the summit will propel us close to our dream of a world free of landmines,” Petritsch said.
The Ottawa Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, was signed in 1997 and entered into force in 1999.
Africa is the world’s most mine-affected region and many saw it as fitting that the First Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention is being held in Africa.
The U.S. is not attending the conference, nor is it a signatory to the Ottowa Convention. Forty-two other countries, including Russia and China, also chose to not sign the convention. The main sticking point for the U.S. is the Korean peninsula, where anti-personnel mines are a large part of defense plans against a North Korean invasion. It should be noted that the U.S. has stated that it shares “common cause with all those who seek to protect innocent civilians from indiscriminately used land mines.”
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North Korea Drops Use of Most Laudatory Kim Title
Kim Jong-il, doomed to be a nut from day one, has either chosen or been forced to have his public image presented in a more subdued manner.
North Korean media have dropped most laudatory references to leader Kim Jong-il, just days after reports that his portrait had been removed from some public places, an analyst at Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors North Korean media, said on Wednesday.
Instead of being referred to as “dear leader of our party and our people” as had been customary, Kim has been merely called by his job titles, said Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at Radiopress.
The omission, in both radio and print media, was especially glaring in a report on Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Kim’s visit to a military unit.
Kim was referred to by his three main job titles — Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defense Commission.
The change comes amid reports that portraits of Kim Jong-il, ubiquitous in homes, offices and public buildings across North Korea, had been removed from some public meeting halls.
“It’s still hard to say, but taken in context with the reports about the portraits, this dropping of the most laudatory title may be an attempt by Kim to play down his cult of personality,” Suzuki said.
He added, however, that the apparent curtailment of Kim’s personality cult did not suggest anything major had changed in the power structure of the reclusive communist state.
Hmmm. Laying low for diplomatic reasons or fear of becoming a non-person? I think he’s just ronery and blame Team America.
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Japan’s LDP to Propose Self-Defense Force
Japan, having long paid its penance and then some, is about to consider strengthening its national role in its own defense.
Japan’s ruling party is considering constitutional revisions for setting up a self-defense military force and also making the emperor the head of the state.
The Liberal Democratic Party agreed Wednesday to start full discussions on revising the constitution based on a draft outline calling for these measures, the Kyodo news service reported.
Under the revisions, Japan will be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense and the Self-Defense Forces will be allowed to take charge of domestic security when mobilized by the premier and use force as part of international peacekeeping efforts.
Under its present constitution, Japan is forbidden from exercising the right to collective self-defense.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said efforts to realize the preliminary proposals will start in the fall of next year. But the proposal may have a tough time in parliament because of opposition from other parties.
The draft also proposes allowing a female member of the imperial family to take the throne. Koizumi told reporters at his office, “I think the Japanese public mostly accepts it.”
This is long beyond due, and needed to match the country’s economic and diplomatic importance in the Pacific Rim region and worldwide.